By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The Air Force expressed skepticism about the potential purchase of U.S. stealth fighter jets Thursday, citing their high operational and maintenance costs over operational requirements on the Korean Peninsula.
The move is in contrast to the service's previous position on the purchase of combat aircraft equipped with radar-evading stealth technology in the coming years.
``There are lots of question marks as to the purchase of F-22s or F-35s, given the aircraft's low cost effectiveness, and the fact their performance criteria are beyond that required on the peninsula,'' Brig. Gen. Lee Hee-woo, chief of the Air Force's combat capabilities development department, said at a security forum in Seoul.
Lee said the so-called fifth generation stealth technologies inevitably come with a ``capabilities trade-off'' in terms of range, payload, speed and persistence or others.
``In terms of combat capabilities, stealth fighters would have a little more advantage than 4.5 generation and other aircraft in air-to-air operations,'' he said. ``But in air-to-ground missions, I think those aircraft that can carry large payloads in and outside of the fuselage would be more beneficial, in particular after removing enemy's anti-air defense systems, than stealth aircraft with internal payloads.''
In a National Assembly audit last year, the Air Force said it would open a bid to acquire the stealth aircraft in 2011 as part of the country's F-X fighter procurement program.
The F-X program aims to equip the Air Force with 120 high-tech fighters by 2020 to replace its aging F-4s and F-5s. U.S. aircraft giant Boeing won both the 40-plane, $4.2 billion first phase, and the 21-plane, $2.3 billion second phase in 2002 and early this year, respectively.
Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightening II Joint Striker Fighter has been considered a viable candidate for the third phase bid, given that Lockheed's F-22 Raptor may be out of South Korea's reach financially and legally. U.S. technology protection law forbids the export of the world's most advanced F-22s, whose per unit cost is roughly $200 million.
Lockheed officials said the cost for the three versions of the F-35 would be between $45 million and $63 million each. But many defense experts and industry officials say the per-unit price is likely to increase down the road due to reduced purchase quantities and hikes in tool prices.